Pike conger

Pike conger which is called Hamo in Japanese is cooked in the summer, Especially it is eaten in Kyoto and Osaka. Since it is very hot in Japanese summer, it is difficult to cook fish this season. But pike conger has strong vitality. So dishes of pike conger are served in summer. This situation is similar to eel one.

The types of dishes are Otsukuri (Sashimi), soaked in sweetened vinegar, grilled and etc. Gion-Matsuri in Kyoto and Tenjin-Matsuri which are called the big three of Japanese traditional festival are held in the summer. The people in Kyoto and Osaka want to eat dishes of pike conger when Gion-Matsuri and Tenjin-Matsuri are going to be held in the summer.

Eel

It is very hot these days in Japan. Japanese people are tired to be in hot. Many people of them eat eel in summer. Especially they eat eel on the day of the ox in midsummer. There two types of the way how they eat eel. One is “Unaju” which is served broiled eel over rice in a lacquered box. The other is “Unadon” which is a bowl of eel and rice. Generally the price of “Unaju” is higher than “Unadon”. Recently Japanese eels are defined as one of endangered species. So the prices of both “Unaju” and “Unadon” are amazingly high. I seldom eat “Unaju” and “Unadon” these a couple of years.

Shiogama

Shiogama is a Japanese cake. The ingredients of it are flour made from cooked glutinous rice, sugar, salt, powder of marine alga and crushed leaf of the perilla. These ingredients are mixed and pushed into the mold. Shiogama is originally made in Shogama City of Miyagi Prefecture located in north east Japan.

If “wasanbon” which means refined Japanese sugar made in Tokushima Prefecture is put instead of sugar, Shiogama is not so sweat and mellow.

Eggplant with miso

Eggplant with miso is called “Dengaku-nasu” in Japanese. “Dengaku-nasu” is eggplant pasted with “Dengaku” which consists of miso, sugar, sweat sake and sake. What does “Dengaku” mean? It means an acrobatics of an ancient festival at which rice plants are planted. The acrobatics is that an acrobat perform at the top of a long pole. This form is like that eggplant with miso is stuck by a stip.

I think this background is not known very well even in Japan.

Ground soup of corn

We eat the ground soup of corn this season. It is based on the dashi which is Japanese soup stock. Second key factor of the taste is white miso. It is very delicious to cool the ground soup of corn. It is also pretty to pour it into the grass cup. I made it recently and spread a leaf of corn under the grass cup. You may think it is similar to the corn cream soup. But it is different from the corn cream soup. Ground soup of corn is plain taste and rich in flavor.

Fig with sesame sauce

Do you know how to peel the fig? Fig is very soft. So you should be very careful not to crush it in your hand when you peel it. If you feel unwell, you had better not to peel the fig. I you are pleasant, you can peel the fig and you reach the sweet world of the fig. I recommend that you might eat the fig with sesame sauce. Sesame sauce is sweet but a bit salty. This combination of smell is too delicate to describe that exactly.

This week I cooked the fig with sesame sauce the first time. I think I could peel the fig well probably.

Bread with Dashi

I am wondering whether the bread with Dashi is delicious. I bake bread every weekend. I often put tomato into bread flour. As you know, tomato has glutamic acid. Glutamic acid is a factor of Umami which is fifth category of taste. So I think it may be nice combination that Dashi is included into bread flour because Dashi is made from glutamic acid and inosinic acid. What taste is the bread with Dashi? Is it really nice combination? I would like to try to bake the bread with Dashi in two or three weeks.